Chicken update – cute predator alert

This was going to be an update about my chickens.

I was going to tell you all about the Chicken Palace.

I was going to point out how the coop itself has two levels. The girls stay in the upper level (it comes complete with nesting boxes and roosts) at night because it is the most protected part of the compound. And how there is a trap door and gangplank that leads from the upper level to the fenced-in terrace level underneath it.

How the terrace leads to the courtyard, where the girls like to sun themselves.

And how the courtyard opens into the roofed playpen, complete with old dog kennel filled with shavings for dust baths, roost made from an old pipe, and feeding stations where we drop off beetles, grubs, worms, and greens in addition to their regular food.

I was going to tell you about all of these things, but then we found these paw prints in the Forest.

So BH baited a Havaheart trap. Lo and behold…

We found a critter, a young raccoon who had hoped to put chicken on the menu.

There REALLY is a Happy Valley; it’s a state park not far from our house. That’s where Scot took the little guy. I asked Scot to explain this to the critter because the two of them formed an immediate, special bond.

FYI for future havaheart experiences, at least in Massachusetts it’s illegal to transport wild animals in your car. My family found this out one summer when we caught a woodchuck, possum, raccoon and then skunk in sequence (my mother grows a tasty garden, it seems). The first three were transported to the back of a nearby middle school, but with the skunk, we figured it was above our pay-grade (although he was very, very cute), and called Animal Control. They told us if we caught it, it was our problem, and, by the way, if we were thinking about moving him to someone else’s property, it was a $500 fine. Yikes! So my dad geared up in a raincoat and old pants, and jimmied the trap open with a ski pole from as far away as he could manage.

Dunno what New York’s laws are like, but in summary: Don’t let the fuzz catch you on your way to Happy Valley! 🙂